Pen Boycot, Pencils & Only the BEST!

Well, this first quarter is almost done (Oct. 30th to be exact) and I am at last blogging.  I hate being a newbie, I feel at times I am just treading water trying to learn all the in's and out's of a new school.  At least I am still teaching 4th and 5th grade which makes things a bit easier. 

I wanted to blog about the quality of student work.  I really think what a student turns in should be done with pride but WHOA Nelly...... what I was getting from my 4th  and 5th graders was the furthest from quality.  UGH!!!!  I am not sure if it was they were still on summer break mode, testing the new teacher or that it was really quality work was never expected from them.  Or was it something else? 

Hmmmm I had a long talk with both classes explained to them that being a student is their job and their work was a reflection of them as a student.  My job is being a teacher and I cannot turn in lesson plans scribbled out, misspelled, missing parts, crumbled up and written on the wrong side of the paper. So they could not either! 

I also made a bulletin board with examples of neat work where I display one paper I thought was the neatest that week from each class.  Finally I BANNED pens!  Some of the others teachers on my team let the kids write in pen so I felt I needed to do the same.  I tried really I did but the junk I was getting was unacceptable by my standards. WOW!!! What a difference!  Now not everyone is perfect but the improvement I have seen across the board. Very impressive this week.

Here are some of the best this week.

In this assignment my 4th graders and I were taking about setting in our book club books and using textual evidence to support. They had to write a page number of where they found the evidence and then draw and color a picture of the setting.

Now I have another issue...kids coming without pencils or sharpening pencils for the first 10 minutes of class.  I solved that I have a bunch of pencils, pre-sharpened and they have to give me something for a new pencil.  When they give me the pencil back I give them back what they gave me.  Seems to have helped. Gosh I feel like I am constantly putting out fires.  LOL

I hope everyone has an amazing week!  I am looking forward to a week full of pencils and prideful work!

Birthday, Bills, & Fairies? Of Course it is Farley's Linky Party!

Ok I absolutely love this girl and she does not even know me.  No I am not a weirdo stalker.....weird maybe but not a stalker.  LOL  It is time to link up with Farley @ Oh Boy It Is 3rd Grade blog and her awesome currently linky party.  Here we go!

 

September first is one of my favorite days of the year.  It is my son's birthday who is 15 today.  The day I became a mom which is my favorite job!!!

- Listening to my youngest is trying to wrap his new baseball cleats with no box is hilarious!  I am gong to have to intervene here shortly. LOL

- Loving 3 day weekends & who doesn't? 

-Thinking I need to pay some bills.  It is on my To Do list today & it is always dreaded. 

-Wanting to get my new school paycheck.  I changed job this year in hopes that we can get out of the financial hole we are in.  We will see in about 2 weeks.

-Needing a house cleaning fairy.  I am sure there is no need to explain here.

3 Trips - I wanted to put Italy for all three because my husband and I desperately want to go visit some day.  Some of his family still lives there.  I even got a crazy idea at one point to sell everything and move there!  Thankfully my hubby is the voice of reason.  After Italy I would love to travel out west on a roadtrip.  Those super cute vintage campers that Farley use on this month's currently & her To Do List at TpTstore got me addicted. 

We found this at a vintage store in Akron, Ohio

I have never been any further then Texas.  The third trip I would loved to take with my hubby is Alaska.  It looks so beautiful. 

Well come with me while I check out the other bloggers' Currently. 

Happy Labor Day<

First Friday, New Beginnings & A Freebie

This is step one.

Well it is Sunday night and I am about to embark on my second week of school.  My first week was awesome and exhausting at the same time.  I can't remember the last time I had to learn 120 students names!  Boy has it been awhile.  I think I have my homeroom memorized and about 1/2 the other kids.  The rest are honey and sweetie! 

First weeks can be tough with all the new rules and procedures that have to be learned.  On Friday we blew off some steam and practice group jobs with a team building activity that I read about on The Science Penguin blog which Ari found on Science Gal. They LOVED it.  So here are a few pictures. Assigning jobs really made a difference!  Here is my lab sheet for FREE. 

What are some of your first week tips?



This is the final step.



Trying to figure out the grabber tool.

Slant Box Love!

My Slant Box came when I was working on my classroom and my girls were dying to see what Amanda from His and Her Hobbies blog.  Now I will be honest I had Amanda already as a Slant Box partner so I knew her package would be AWESOME!  Just look at all that SUNSHINE (that was the theme for the exchange this month). 

First Amanda sent a cute handmade zebra card, then a bunch of snack cups (my son devoured most), a cute mason jar cup filled with different lemonades, 2 magazines and the most adorable drawstring bag her hubby made.  My oldest daughter has her eye on the drawstring bag so I may need to hide it.  Amanda packed a bag perfect for the beach now I just have to keep my kids away from all the treats! 

So a few of you are asking yourselves what is a Slant Box Exchange?  When you sign up your are paired up with a teacher that you will receive a Slant Box from and another that you will send to.  You have a theme to pack your box with.  You are not committed every month to participated only the months you sign up for.  Hurry over to Jameson's blog Lessons with Coffee the cut off day is AUG. 5TH - so hurry up and join the Slant Box fun.

Wordless Wednesday Newbie

This looks like a fun linky over at Sugar and Spice with Wordless Wednesday that I had to try.  So here I go.....

 

My new classroom....I had to stop and get a few pictures so I can start to think what I want to do.  I am thinking of changing my colors from "Dots on Chocolate" to teal, black and white.  Do you do a theme or certain colors in your classroom?

Come join up and take a look around.

Monday Made It - Food, Food, and More Food!

Good morning everyone!  It is Monday and you know what day it is......Monday Made It over at Tara's house 4th Grade Frolics.  I just LOVE this linky!

Just be warned I did not make one school thing!  I think I am protesting that summer is flying by or just in denial that school will be starting in less than a month!  Boo! 

This is my favorite and it not completely done but my hubby (That counts for "my" Made It right?)made me a kitchen window herb garden.  I still need to paint it.  I love to have my window open and watch my kids play on the swings and the chickens.  Yep we have chickens!  My hubby is a city boy with a farmers heart so this is how he gets his fix!  LOL

Then I made some broccoli slaw not real fancy but I HATE to cook so this was fancy for me.  I just searched on Pinterest (my favorite place to escape to) to get the ingredients and voila!  I did stop at Trader's Joe's for the slaw that inspired the entire recipe.  The kids would not eat it but my hubby and myself enjoyed it! 

Ok this one looks gross in the pan but it was super easy and we tried something new orzo!  Orzo with Parmesan and Basil Yum!  The recipe I found on.......yep Pintrest.  You can find the recipe on Tasty Kitchen.  It was like macaroni and cheese for grown ups. 


Well sorry for all the food pictures.  It was a week of trying new things.  Maybe next week I will make something for my classroom....maybe;D 

Have a great week,

Monday Made It - School, Personal & Home

Today is Monday so I HAD to link up with Tara Fourth Grade Frolics for......

 

Made It # 1 - School
Ok I did work on some school stuff, my reading notebooks.  I started the first couple pages in the notebook.  I will spend the first week or so setting up notebooks for both my 4th grade reading classes and my 4th and 5th grade science classes.  I love using notebooks.

Ok this is upside down and I cannot get it to flip.  Grrrrrr!

Made It # 2 - School
 I also worked on a product for my TpT store.  If you want to take a look click Extinct, Endangered, Threatened Webquest. I need to look it over again to make sure my pain meds did not effect my judgment. All those Instagram, Facebook and blog post from Vegas this weekend were so inspiring.  I want to go next year! 

Made It # 3   - Personal
I had surgery to replace my ear drum that had ruptured and never closed quite a few years back.  It has really effected my hearing.  Both my ears are a mess but just one at a time please!  I could not just get hearing aids which I thought about.  The tissue from my ear canal was creeping behind the little bit of my ear drum I had threatening to make my hearing worst.  So I gave in and got the surgery.  I won't get too graphic but lets just say it feels like I have had a backwards facelift and a stick shoved in my ear.  Ouch!  Here is my lovely headgear I had to wear the first night home.  Tuesday I get the packing out and I cannot wait!  I pray my hearing will be better after all this pain. 

Made It # 4- Home
While stuck at home recuperating and starting to feel a little better I made pretzel rolls.  Yum this is my favorite recipe even though they did not get as brown as I like since I was low on baking soda.  Here is a link to the easy recipe. 


There is the empty box of baking soda for the roll bath!



The dough needs to raise for about an hour. 



Wow does these look huge & ugly. They tasted better then they looked!

I cannot wait to check out the other bloggers' Monday Made It.  I hope everyone has a great week.